Tides

CHAPTER 1--Valeno

Werewolves were better than vampires–everyone knew this. It's just how it was. But today–Today Valeno was seriously doubting this.

He had been tracking a young female as she headed for the Tribe's border, and after two days of no luck, he was seriously beginning to doubt his abilities. Valeno was doing the Tribe a solid by killing this vampire for them. Even though he was technically a Lone Wolf and was never allowed past the Beartooth Wolftribe's scent markers, he still hunted vampires for them.

Rubbing his thumb across the sizable scar on his right palm, Valeno studied the gashed-through tattoo that marked him as a Beartooth outcast. As a Wolf who had been cast out at the age of eight, one learned to survive quickly in the unforgiving wilderness–it was either that or die. Valeno did not choose death. He would never choose death; death held no honor.

Valeno didn't miss his pack, either. Being almost killed by your uncles can have that effect on you. The only thing he missed was the group hunting, where they could bring down a full grown elk stag without any problem. Out here, Valeno had to live off small game and fish. Not the best diet, but it had worked for the last ten years. As he grew stronger he taught himself to catch deer on the run. He was getting better at it every day.

With a low growl of frustration, Valeno ran his tongue across his fangs, eyes narrowed. Lifting his head to catch the scent again, he smiled to himself.

The hunt was on.

She heard him coming, but it was already too late. He was shifting as he ran, becoming a canine monstrosity–a seven foot long mountain of muscle and fur. She turned, hissing, her unnatural pupils narrowing to slits. Leaping forward, she tried to make a run for it, but a heavy blow from Valeno's forepaw brought her bleeding to the ground. There was the snick! of bone rubbing against bone as the vampire girl unhinged her jaw wide, displaying an upper and a lower set of fangs–a vampire characteristic. She lunged at him, blonde hair flying, and he was too late to dodge.

Both of them went tumbling over the Beartooth scent-markers.

Valeno snarled, locking his teeth into the girl's shoulder as she pounded relentlessly at his head with rock-hard blows. Her teeth met in his foreleg and he yowled, releasing her. Spitting the sour taste of vampire blood from his tongue, Valeno dug his foreclaws into her back. She screamed, gargled, and released him, pupils growing and shrinking rapidly in her panic.

Valeno rolled to his feet, all four paws steady as the vampire fell to the ground, twitching in agony. Growling, he lunged forward and snapped her neck with one bite.

The body went limp.

Only when he had cleansed his nose of the stench of vampire blood did he pick up another.

Relatives.

His uncles. The Beartooth Wolftribe.

Whining, Valeno rose up onto two legs for better height, long ears straining to pick up any sounds.

"Valeno."

He froze. His name–someone had just said his name. Shifting back into humanoid form, he sniffed the air.

Shit.

"Jalno," he said, slowly. Out of all of Valeno's crazy uncles, Jalno was the most sadistic and violent–Valeno had the scars to prove it.  

 "Jalno, I swear I–"

A low growl cut him off. "Valeno, I distinctly remember telling you to never cross into our borders again."

Snarling filled the air and the bushes behind him began to tremble. Valeno turned tail and ran. The pendant around his neck thumped his sternum, the point of the tooth bruising his chest. The crash of underbrush at his back indicated that he was being chased.

  A memory from the last time his uncles chased him:

Trapped. He was trapped. Wolves surrounded him, some human, some animal-shifted. And Uncle Jalno's claws slashing directly at Valeno's left cheek. 

Gasping, Valeno scrambled over a boulder and hurled himself out of Beartooth territory. Trembling, he turned back to the border and spotted three sets of canine silvery eyes glaring at him. 

 "That was only a warning," came the growl. "If we see you on our land again, Loner, then we will not hesitate to end you."

"But–The vampire girl–" Valeno started. "What about my--?"

Snarling cut him off. "You have been warned One-With-No-Pack."

With a chuff of finality, Jalno and Valeno's two other uncles turned and disappeared back into their side of the forest.

"Bastard," Valeno muttered after them. "Fucking morons. Like you could hurt me!"

Realistically, they could, but only if it was a three on one. Alone, he would be a formidable match for any one of his uncles.

Trotting rapidly away from the border and keeping his senses alert until a mile separated them, Valeno headed for home. At least his uncles had a corpse to deal with.

They deserved that. 

 Growling lightly to himself, he headed north–towards home.

Valeno's home was a series of caves carved into the side of a mountain by the river that ran by his feet. It was a twenty foot drop right outside his front door, but the fishing was prime down there. The selection of game was rich due to the water supply, and he was well hidden by rocky angles and watery reflections. The place was nearly impossible to get to, unseeable and untrackable thanks to the river–it was home.

Leaping across the stepping stones, Valeno crossed through the waterfall and landed on solid, rocky ground. Catching a glimpse of himself in the water, he paused. Bending, he crouched to wash the blood from his hands before going inside. As he scrubbed, he studied his reflection in the water. 

Long matted hair full of twigs, bare-chested and currently pantsless due to his abrupt shift earlier. Sighing, Valeno went to grab a new pair and shove them on, reminding himself to hold the material in his shifts so he wouldn't go through so many pairs of pants. He only had a limited supply here.

Securing his new pair of slacks with a makeshift belt of rope, Valeno fingered the pendant that he always wore around his neck. It was a tooth, a huge canine tooth, the base as wide as his thumb. The tooth was threaded onto a worn leather cord set across his collar-bone. It meant everything to him, and Valeno would die fighting for it.

Abruptly the wind changed direction and blew straight into his face.

A sour smell clouded Valeno's nostrils.

Vampire! But how–?!

Ever so carefully he stuck his head out and scanned the riverbank below.

Nothing, nothing, nothing...Where was the scent coming from?

More searching.

More nothing...Wait!

An unmoving shape half in half out of the water, copper colored water staining the rocks around the figure. Was it seriously–Was it the vampire he had killed less than an hour ago?

No. Too big, and–and...With a heartbeat? Valeno could hear a heart beating.

What was this?